Carbines and More... Detroit July 1967

[browningautorifle]

Were they ordered to dispose of their mags? I don't know.
my Father found all of those Carbine mags (among other types) buried under debris in a dumpster,

I don't think so...when I was training in Ft Lewis WA some years back...1989 I think...we had occasion to chat with a U.S. soldier that came into our stores...I asked him if he had any extra .45 mags with them. He said they were doing range qual with M16s and was dropping off aluminum mags to our CQ. They only had the mags that came with the pistols, no extras. They had done that qual a month before. The extra mags they had with them that trip, they'd tossed by the crate into the local dumpsters rather than take them back...

I think what your dad found was after action sanitizing and accounting. Nothing magic...